Ethnicity Sotho–Tswana Religion Christian Title Kgosi of the Kwena Name Sebele I | Term 1892 – 1911 Parents Sechele I Successor Sechele II Predecessor Sechele I | |
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Born Circa 1841 Bechuanaland Protectorate (nowadays, Botswana) Died 1911, Bechuanaland Protectorate | ||
Sebele I was a chief (kgosi) of the Kwena —a major Tswana tribe (morafe) in modern-day Botswana— who ruled from 1892 until his death in 1911. During his lifetime, he resisted control of his domains by Cecil Rhodes' British South African Company, which was administering, by a royal charter signed in October 1889, his homeland in the Bechuanaland Protectorate and other regions of Central Africa.
With support from Christian missionaries, Sebele traveled to Britain in 1895 along with Bathoem and Khama III to protest a new attempt to incorporate the protectorate into Cape Colony and secured support from Queen Victoria in exchange for an eastern strip of territory. Between 1908 and 1909 he also resisted the incorporation of Bechuanaland into the Union of South Africa.